~ Physical Resist Rating (or PRR), the new formula the increases its power, and the bonuses to PRR that heavier armors will grant.
~ Magical Resist Rating (or MRR), the new rating that will mitigate magical damage, and the bonuses to MRR that heavier armors will grant.
~ Melee Power, the new melee specific attribute similar to Spellpower, and how certain static effects will scale with this new attribute.
~ Ranged Power, the new missile specific attribute similar to Spellpower, and how it might affect future abilities.
~ Improvements to the mitigation of heavier armors.
Physical Resist Rating
The attribute is used to mitigate physical damage of all types. The game already has Physical Resist Rating. We are changing the mitigation formula of this attribute, effectively buffing its power. The new formula:
100 / (100 + Rating)
This boost will help mitigate the damage of melee enemies in Epic Elite and will help players to build characters that can survive toe to toe with those enemies.
Magical Resist Rating
This new attribute is the magical equivalent of PRR. It can be increased by wearing armor, gearing up Sheltering effects, and picking certain enhancements. This rating works on most magical effects. It will not reduce force, bane and some other special effects. The mitigation this rating provides following a similar formula as PRR.
100 / (100 + Rating)
Melee Power
The new attribute is essentially the melee version of Spellpower. Melee Power will not only increase the damage of straight weapon damage, but certain static effects from enhancements will now scale up with Melee Power allowing them to be more useful in epic levels. Melee Power will be gained from certain enhancements and from some melee epic destinies. Our plan is to have future loot include Melee Power. This rating increases melee attacks by the following formula.
(100 + Rating) / 100
As we rebalance static effects found in enhancements we will make these scale with Melee Power so they increase as you gain power and new loot. As an example, several Paladin damage sources that were previously static will now scale with Melee Power.
Ranged Power
This new attribute is ranged version of Melee Power, or if you prefer the ranged equivalent to Spellpower. This rating increases missile attacks by the following formula.
(100 + Rating) / 100
Buffing Heavy Armor
Physical and Magical Resist Ratings offered by armor
Robes or Outfits: No PRR, no MRR
Light Armor: 10 PRR, 10 MRR if armor has enchantments. (This is in addtion to the current PRR bonus of 2 + (BAB / 2.0) )
Medium Armor: 20 PRR, 20 MRR if armor has enchantments. (This is in addtion to the current PRR bonus of 4 + (BAB / 1.5) )
Heavy Armor: 30 PRR, 30 MRR if armor has enchantments. (This is in addtion to the current PRR bonus of 6 + BAB )
Physical and Magical Resist Ratings offered by sheilds
Buckler: None
Light Shield: 5 PRR, 5 MRR if shield has enchantments.
Heavy Shield: 10 PRR, 10 MRR if shield has enchantments.
Tower Shield: 15 PRR, 15 MRR if shield has enchantments.
Physical and Magical Resist Rating multiplier against magical attacks that normally allow a Reflex saving throw.
Buckler: 1.0 (no additional mitigation)
Light Shield: 1.0 (no additional mitigation)
Heavy Shield: 2.0
Tower Shield: 2.0
Resistance Rating Caps and Evasion
Buckler: None
Light Shield: None
Heavy Shield: No Evasion feat
Tower Shield: No Evasion feat
Magical Resistance Rating Cap for armor
Robes or Outfit: 100
Light Armor: 200
Medium Armor: No cap
Heavy Armor: No cap
Magical Resistance Rating and Loot
Magical Resistance Rating will appear on existing and future items with the Sheltering effect. All items with the Sheltering effect will give an amount of MRR equal to the PRR of that effect. Note that armor type will still limit the amount of MRR you can have. In the future items may offer additional sources of PRR and/or MRR in addition to sheltering effects.

As I mentioned before during calls, the devs are adding a %-based magic-damage reduction similar in function and concept to PRR. This is primarily to enable heavy armored character to compete where evasion characters currently rule.

The Melee/Ranged Power are basically mirrors of the current Spellpower system currently in use. It adds that much damage to your base attacks. In addition, certain PrE or ED abilities will also be scaled by this. Divine Light, in the Paladin tree for example (AoE Light damage effect vs Undead, works well in lower levels from memory, but currently doesn't scale).

In addition, some of the EDs are being rebalanced a bit, to give Melee (and/or ranged) Power in each core, as well as some MP/RP being granted just for the Commoner levels themselves (giving them more value). The total means (under current posted numbers) that in a combat destiny like Crusader, GMoF, LD, or Fury, you gain 150% damage at level 28 in a capped ED.

From the list, the 'combat destinies' are basically everything except Shiradi, Exalted, Magister, and Draconic. The 'Caster/Ranged' EDs. Fatesinger is also left out, but a later post mentions it was probably an oversight.

Some feats are also giving some MP, notably the currently lackluster THF feats, and Shield Mastery/ISM and I Shield Bash. 10 on first feat, 5 on the other two in each chain.

Paladin (because Peter is chomping at the bit to see this…)

Code:

Holy Sword
Evocation (Good spells)
Paladin 4
Components: Verbal, Somatic
Metamagic: Quicken
Range: Touch
Target: Self
Duration: 1 minute per caster level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Channels holy power to increase the effectiveness of your equipped weapons. Weapons you currently are wielding gain an additional +2 holy bonus to enhancement value. The spell also increases the threat range and critical weapon multiplier of these weapons by 1.
Zeal
Zeal is already quite good, but as a quality of life change we are increasing its duration to match the new Holy Sword spell. It will now last one minute per caster level.

Changes to Zeal are nice, and Holy Sword is pretty decent as well, especially if it will work with Artificer Imbues. Looks like they lose the free general DR bypass, though they can use a better dps DR breaker instead so that's fine.

I don't understand the 100% Melee Power thing. Do you not get extra damage until your MP is over 100? Otherwise, not terrible. Without seeing either Vanguard or Defender's revamp I can't plan a build on it, but it's not terrible.

Meh. Turn undead may as well not bother with, and DL is too niche for consideration. Basically, I'd use the Extra Smites (note, I copied this, so I did NOT put the mistake in there) and maybe extra remove disease.

Censure is too limited to be of use. Devils and Demons are not the entire game anymore fools! Empower Smite is useful, as is Healing Amp.

Code:

Tier Five (40 AP Required)
• Censure Outsiders: Your Censure Demons ability now applies to all Chaotic or Evil outsiders.
• Vigor of Life: Your Positive Healing Amplification is increased by (5/10)%, and you take (5/10)% less damage from Negative Energy.
• Holy Retribution: Melee Channel Divinity: Executes a powerful holy strike against the target that deals +1/+3/+5[W] damage. On Damage: Evil creatures with less than 1,000 HP have a 50%/75%/100% chance to be forced to make a Will save (DC 10 + Paladin Level + Charisma Mod) or be destroyed. On a successful save, the affected creature takes 100 holy damage from this attack as well as -6 to all ability scores for ten seconds. (Cooldown: 6 seconds) This ability also recharges one Smite Evil.
• Sealed Life: You are immune to Energy Drain.
• Avenging Cleave: Shares its cooldown with the Great Cleave feat. Make a powerful sweeping attack against all nearby enemies that deals +1/+3/+5[W] damage. Each creature gains one stack of Vulnerability.

Avenging Cleave shares the same issue as Exalted Cleave; if building for DPS, you build of Overwhelming Critical, which means you burn feats for Cleave and Great Cleave. Retribution is nice, 5[w] strike which may insta-kill in heroics. Too weak a DC for Epics though. And using Turns means it's of limited use.

Note that things like Sacrifice and the core Light damage procs scale with MP (we are deep in acronym hell here).

All in all, meh. Nothing here to make me consider a Paladin beyond a 2 level splash. Maybe 3.

*Edit*

Looks like I spoke early on the Cleaves. G. Cleave is being removed as a pre-req for O-Crit. Since it doesn't require PA or Cleave, that opens up 2-3 feat slots for a Paladin.

By making O-Crit not require a 3 feat chain (plus a 4th feat and 23 STR), it opens up feat slots. KotC Cleave Clones allows Paladin and Paladin splashes to keep Cleaving without the feats. So, they technically don't lose them, just gain feat slots (which, as Peter and Jo and I can attest, are in short supply on a Paladin).

So better, though the tree is definitely lackluster compared to Swashbuckler. Holy Sword is the 800lb Gorilla in the room, almost powerful enough by itself to justify 14 levels of Paladin.

I suppose changes that make pointy sticks more viable are always welcome.

That said, I'm disappointed with the direction they're pushing character development. You've got 13 classes, each with 3 trees (OK, arty's only got 2 right now, ya know what I mean). If they spent as much time actually putting real value into the enhancement trees (and, for lack of paying attention, I'll assume the argument applies to epics, too), they could eliminate the drivers for all this splash nonsense. You've got the potential for 39 distinct toons, plus the option to allow players to dabble if they really want. Say it takes 55-60 points to buy out a tree but everything in that tree has legit value. That leaves 20-some points for customization. People get choices so that things that make no sense (sorc with a monk splash?) from a character standpoint don't make sense from a game mechanics standpoint. Just seems to me that Turbine has missed the boat some time ago and they're continually doubling down on the mistake.

And how about some new heroic content? Bah, I'm getting old and crotchety.

Not just enhancement trees, feats are also lacking greatly for the most part. Who takes a skill focus, especially these days? Who take Weapon Focus other than Fighters pushing into Kensai? Many feats add +1 or 2 to one save or another, not one person adds them.

Sorc's high CHA + 2 Paladin's Divine Grace (CHA bonus to saves) + Monk evasion + stances. A bit feat intensive, but you can net a decent (25%) Dodge rating, Evasion with 70+ Reflex and comparable Fort and Will saves, situational healing (LoH) which can be expanded with a twist, and you can tack on up to +4 CON by investing into the Monk stances.

Yes, I considered working into this build. No, I haven't done it, and probably won't because I'm lazy, and I'd need to get my alignment changed on Aerie and an LR.

Too many whining for "endgame" content, even though Turbine (and pretty much every other MMO developer) has admitted that end game raiders amount to 1% of a game's population. See Epic 3BC. Well recieved by most, but the 1% whine and threw a fit because it wasn't L28-30, with L28-30 gear (even though the gear included some best in slot items, or excellent situational items). IMO, all existing content not Heroic should have Heroic level versions made, and all non-free Heroic content given an epic version. Then both camps could be happy, the 99% of people who actually play the game, and the 1% who only play a tiny portion and complain that their extreme focus leaves them with little to do. Though TBH, the 1% would still complain even if they got "end game" only while ignoring everyone else.

DA run to start off, then swap to the 7s. That group is scheduled for 3BC next, but we do have the option of diverting to Necro1 if someone still needs their talisman. Usually it's only First Lifer Living At The Wall needing that, so we're probably OK to skip Necro1 with the folks that will be present.

Update for the absentees-
We took the 7's thru 3 Barrel. We actually ended up completing everything in 3BC except Scoundrel's Run and a few stubborn rares. That was with a screwy party, too—two clerics, a wizzy, an arty, a rogue, and a bard. We will be knocking off Scoundrel eventually for saga purposes, but that doesn't need to happen immediately since that's a lvl7 quest.

We even managed to get Corwin thru Prove Your Worth. We harassed him away from his plan to pike one of his least favorite quests and got him to try the mouselook technique to get up those @$^@%$^@ ladders. He made it all the way to the top without a single stumble, first try. We were so proud. Our little boy's growing up so fast…

Everyone except Az was well into the next lvl and he was very close. Most of us went ahead and took level 8. Reywind and Aletys, please position yourselves as desired. I'd recommend running 3BC so you won't get left out of the saga reward, but technically you can run whatever you desire to qualify for lvl8. Aletys will already be at the ceiling as usual, so that's academic for her. Reywind might have a little work to do. One thing hanging out there is Necro1. I seem to remember Reywind actually needing his talisman and we did Burning (the one that takes 4 toons) as a group so that might be an option for easy solo work to catch up.

Not sure what's on deck for that group. There aren't any level 6 packs to run—Tangles and Sorrowdusk go thru 6, but I don't think either of those were on deck anyway. There's a good number of tavern quests available, so we'll probably tackle all those and then move on to Sentinels even if we start it under level. Any special requests? We could do a Chronoscope if the mood struck. We could also knock out Delera, doing the whole thing now even though we'd be under level for the ending.

Re: the normal Friday toons--
We've also got some decisions to make regarding the usual Friday toons (22's). We've still got a decent amount of heroic content available that was requested (IQ1-Jeets, Shavarath, Litany) plus some other heroic stuff (Reavers, High Road, Storm Horns). I think everyone has qualified for level 23 now, which is a level people like to take. That also opens up a buttload of epic content that many of us have never run as well—epic GH, epic DQ, epic Sentinels, epic VoN, epic Carnival, epic Spinner, epic Red Fens. What direction do we want to go?

Humm……holding level at epic is not a big deal. You still gain you ED's regardless. I would personally like to see us do completist runs on these toons. One time do it all. But that is me. I don't think taking 23 would be terribly bad. Let's us get more access to items, spells etc. I leave that to the group majority.

-- Bart and Corwin should just admit that when it gets down to it, I will have the final say.

Rachail hit 8 in subsequent S/E/R runs after the group started going to sleep. I also pushed through on Aerie and got 13 doing the same. So both groups (though the 13's are less of a group and more a rare we have someone at the same level kind of deal) should be mostly together now.

A completist run should push us near 5,000 favor, which nets a +5 tome as a reward. We would have to start hitting challenges as well, which may not be a bad thing, some nice gear out of the Cannith ones at least, and you can get lucky out of the Eveningstar ones (random though).

We would have to make runs through content we skipped before, which would be boring even on elite for much of it. But on future TRs I wouldn't be opposed to simply doing everything in game from here on out, up to the latest raids at least.

Given the TR XP reduction, I don't think it's as critical to keep things within a certain level range any more. Obviously at later levels we may not be able to handle elites a level or two below, but lower levels it's not as big a deal.

As far as the L22's go, we either need to decide if we're going to remain at the wall (and lose xp for leveling but not ED's) or take levels and thus a penalty on lower level quests when we run them. I think though that's a discussion for when the whole group is together. There is now too much content to hit everything without losing some either to the Wall or to over-level penalty.

Taking L23 does open up some very nice gear, so it may be worthwhile to push on. 23-24 are both decently strong levels.

As of tonight I'd say it's even odds whether I make this week's session. Our verification run for Ford has been an unmitigated disaster so far and I see no change in my luck coming. Won't really know until it's too late, too. Either I'll be there or I won't--don't wait around. Run whatever toons ya like. Reywind might still need some help getting level 8, as one option. The 13's that are now 14's can run/repeat Lordsmarch1, as another.

Actually, you could run the normal Friday toons if y'all really wanted to--I'd just ask that you avoid "unusual" chains. I wouldn't really care if I missed another IQ1 run (although I"ve got a buttload of disks for that bonus chest that y'all might not have since I think somehow I got nominated to collect and carry all of them the group received), but I'd rather y'all didn't run High Road without me, for instance.